ROCKVILLE —Tyler Tessier, charged with killing his pregnant girlfriend, Laura Wallen, who was a teacher at Wilde Lake High School in Howard County, appeared in court Friday for a key pretrial hearing in Rockville.

The prosecution and the defense tussled over evidence and a possible site visit by the jury to the remote field in Damascus where police say Tessier shot the pregnant teacher with a .22-caliber weapon before burying her in a shallow grave. The burial site, prosecutors told the judge, is so remote, so hard to find and get to, that the jurors need to see it for themselves.

Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy told the judge that in his 38 years trying cases, he has never asked to bring a jury to a site. He said that asking for it now shows how unique the case is.

"I just spent the last several minutes meeting with the family and making sure they didn't have any questions about what happened in open court," McCarthy said.

Wallen's family was in the front row in the Rockville courtroom. The defendant appeared in person, as well, as the murder case against him hits a critical stage.

"We have a responsibility here to prove who did this. And therefore, I thought going to that scene would go a long way toward helping us prove that," McCarthy said. "To prove two critical elements, which again, I said in open court, premeditation and identification of who her killer was."

But Tessier's defense attorney, Allen Wolfe, said it is unnecessary, arguing, "In an already extremely, extremely emotional case, this is simply over the top."

To go to the site, Wolfe said, is playing into the jury's "pity, passion and emotion."

In response to the request, the judge told prosecutors, "It is very unlikely I would let you do it," calling a site visit "a logistical nightmare." However, the judge reserved the right to rule on it during the trial, which is set to start on Sept. 4.